It is of course an ongoing process as events are being announced all the time and old events need to be deleted.
When I checked it today, the calendar had passed 1.4 million pageviews so it gets quite a lot of traffic.
Here are a few observations...
1) Expense... Outside of parkruns and BHAA races, the cost of races organised by athletic clubs is getting expensive.
It wasn't that long ago that you could enter a road race for €10. Now with all the additional charges, you would have much change out of €30 for some.
In some cases, the cost might be justified. Maybe it's for charity, maybe there's a dry fit top that helps justify the cost.
In many cases, that's not the case and I'd guess many will find it hard to justify the cost.
2) Cork - Dublin difference... Over the many years that I have been updating the calendar, there has always been a difference between the price of races in Cork and the price of races in Dublin and the surrounding counties.
If it was €10 in Cork then it was about €15 near Dublin. When the prices crept upwards, the gap was about the same.
Now the differential between Cork and Dublin / Leinster seems to have disappeared and the races in Cork are as expensive.
As for the future???.... For many, the BHAA races and various parkruns are just as good as the club races and at a fraction of the cost. As the entry fees creep ever upwards, how long before they get too expensive?
3 comments:
Yes agreed makes you wonder why alot more people don't participate in both as they are as competitive as any race. In alot of cases the half costs what the full used to be only a few years back. Still few races keeping prices at a reasonable level but minority these times and not changing to keep up with everything else
There is an element of costs to consider when looking at rising entry fees, the cost of insurance, traffic management, etc have all increased dramatically in past 10 years. The BHAA and park runs are fantastic but there is a large number in every event that want the T shirt , medal etc, and clubs feel they have to provide these to attract the large numbers.
Agree too, and online race registration has made it all too easy to up the entry fees - example of Cork City Marathon - 75 euro + 4.88 service charge + 2 euro AAI one day licence = 81.88; now if you were to turn up and hand over that amount in hard cash in order to run around the streets of Cork City, I'm sure many would think twice about it.
Athletics Ireland & eventmaster are cleaning up on the back of the average runner while returning nothing to the recreational running scene - it's time for an independent athletics association for local road races (expand BHAA?), rather than the current one, as the fees generated by the AAI fees go to high performance athletes only.
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